Chrysalis

[What do you see?]

[Much, prey. Dangerous.]

[Let me take a look.]

The vision was blurry, incomplete, but enough to show that the assessment was correct. They couldn’t go this way.

[Alright. Come back. Make sure you aren’t seen.]

Columbant withdrew her awareness from her distant pet, the small cavern in which she crouched snapping back into focus with disorienting clarity. Even after advancing the Skill to the second rank, it was still difficult to use, especially over a distance.

We can’t use that path, she thought to herself, which is going to severely limit our options. Are we cut off?

She consulted her tunnel map and began to plot out the routes still available to her. They’d ranged far from the meeting point, but there were still five days left before she was due to rendezvous with Magellant. She just hadn’t expected monster activity to be so high in this area.

[What do you think, Mistress? Shall we fight our way out?]

Her smartest pet, Rist, had long worked out how precarious their circumstances were. The flame demon had a good mind and a flair for fire magic, but was often too eager to engage, a tendency she had to be mindful of.

[It’s not ideal,] she confessed before she began to sketch out a rough version of her tunnel map on the floor with one leg. [We currently sit between two expanses that are unusually close together. This one is the shadow coral reef we explored earlier, this one we haven’t been into, but I suspect is a shadow swamp type. The spillover of monsters between the two is flooding the tunnels around us and causing the monsters to be higher tiers than I expected. If we try and fight our way out, we need to make it through these three junctions.]

She indicated the points where the tunnels met with an antenna while she continued to sketch with her leg. As she spoke, Rist watched with his ever-burning eyes, carefully taking in her words.

density, we might end up pulling more monsters down

the demon said, a little disappointed. He hated

just too thick in the stone down

before. They could still dig through, but it

Rist said forcefully, [we

if needed to save

will all make it. I have a plan. Quietly train your Skills and wait for

manipulation, twisting the flame into shapes and making them dance on his palm. Columbant skittered across to where her third pet

before reaching out with soothing energy. The beetle-beast groaned as the jagged wound across her flank began to seal over, bit by bit. A day after the fight that caused it,

girl?] Columbant

her head a little from her shell,

[Ready,] she insisted.

[No, girl. Not yet.]

[Ready!]

small ant felt a pain

some more food into you, and

as well. Combined with a bit of Biomass, it would nearly

has gained experience.

Slither alright? She resisted the urge to reach out to

she waited for the shadow creature to return, sighing with relief when he finally dropped down from the narrow opening above. A slug-variant of her own creation, Slither splatted onto the ground before reforming himself. Without a word,

Slither] Columbant said.

gratitude rolling off

in two quick chomps, the food was gone.